Max Harris is a New Zealand legal academic, barrister, and public commentator with a background spanning law, policy, and academia.
Harris studied at the University of Auckland [25], where, according to a secondary source, he completed a combined Bachelor of Arts and Laws with Honours (BA/LLB Hons) [1]. During his undergraduate years, he undertook a speechwriting internship at the South Australian Department of Premier and Cabinet, according to a single secondary source [17], and worked at the law firm Russell McVeagh from around 2008 [21]. He also undertook a summer scholarship at the Australian National University in Canberra in 2009 [18], and worked at the American Civil Liberties Union in New York in 2010 [20].
Harris was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship [5], with one secondary source indicating this was a New Zealand Rhodes Scholarship [30] announced in October 2011 [31]. He subsequently studied at the University of Oxford [26], with one source placing his arrival there from October 2012 [24]. According to a single secondary source, he studied at All Souls College, University of Oxford [23], where he is said to have completed a DPhil (Doctor of Philosophy) [2] and held the position of Examination Fellow in Law [29].
According to a single secondary source, Harris clerked for Chief Justice Elias at the Supreme Court of New Zealand from 2011 [10]. He is also noted, in single secondary sources, as having tutored tort law at Victoria University of Wellington [19] and worked as a consultant for the United Nations Development Programme [13].
In the United Kingdom, a single secondary source reports that Harris served as an economic policy advisor to Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell MP [15]. He is also described, in a single secondary source, as a campaigner and policy researcher [9], and as having been active at ActionStation [22].
According to single secondary sources, Harris is a barrister at Thorndon Chambers [8], with appearances in the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal of New Zealand [14]. He is also noted as the author of the book The New Zealand Project [6].